Black Excellence; Doing It For What Culture?

#blackexcellence
I see it all the time. Hell I use it all the time. I use it to describe anything that my people are doing that is great. I have noticed that this hashtag and term has been thrown around on social media only to describe things like lavish trips out of the country, getting a degree or being successful in business. While these things are all fine and good and I applaud you for the accomplishments they should not be the only definition of #blackexcellence. How about things like healthy relationships? Eating healthy and taking care of our bodies? More importantly taking care of our minds and mental health? Y’all know I struggle with mental health issues so anytime I have a good sane day in this bad insane world is #blackexcellence. Let’s stop limiting ourselves as to what the phrase means and how it coincides with our lives. Yes, at one point in time having things like an advanced degree, a passport and a good job to buy expensive material things was a sign of black excellence because for so long we have been denied access or thought of those as a ‘luxury’ only afforded to the rich I.e. whites. We must evolve past that state of mind. Mental health is still looked at as the plague in black society. The family unit is in disarray and our health is frankly ridiculously poor. Now that we know better we must do better.

#doitfortheculture
Another one that kind of gets lost in translation is #doitfortheculture. I get it but doing it for what culture? Example; Marvel releasing the movie Black Panther is not doing it for the black culture. It’s doing it for the Marvel Franchise and the Marvel Culture. People really think that Marvel just created the Black Panther character in the last few years. Black Panther has been around forever! I remember reading the comic when I was a kid and I’m 38 so that’s at least 30 years worth of Black Panther. Same goes with Luke Cage. Shit ain’t new, Homie. A quick google search will tell you that the character has been around since 1966. Like for real people do your research. The release of black panther is not about doing it for the culture, well at least not specifically the black culture.

Sigh. We sure know how to ruin a good thing. Oh and for those folks that are on instagram talking about “I don’t do this for likes or comments. I do this for the culture”. Ummm… You’re doing it wrong. Instagram is built on likes and comments. That’s the whole point of it; to share your adventures or non adventures and people like and comment on them. It started out as a photo sharing app for people to see other people’s work and like or comment. It’s cool that you’re so deep and into whatever but if you’re not here for the likes and comments you are on the wrong platform, buddy. Take that shit over to facebook where no one really cares. Stop trying to make it more deep or ‘woke’ than what it is. Nobody’s really reading your stupid caption anyway. Keep it moving.

#woke
The ‘woke’ stuff needs to stop. Like for real. Most of you so called ‘woke’ folks need to take some melatonin and take a nap because, again you’re doing it wrong. It’s cool to inform people of the mistreatment or malign of a culture or group of people but also do your research before jumping to say something is racist, sexist, ageist or any other -ist you can think of. I don’t mean that we should or that I ignore blatant discrimination or mistreatment but before you jump on something to boycott or call them out how about we actually look at the whole situation. Was it really that way or did that person make you perceive it that way * cough Monique vs Netflix*? Sometimes people want to play the victim because that’s the only role they know how to play. What part did you play in the downfall or failure of the situation?